The Government will create a brigade to fight against banking cyber fraud

The Minister of Economy, Carlos Body, announced this Wednesday the creation of a new brigade to fight against banking cyber fraud. This was stated by the person responsible for the Executive’s economic policy after meeting with banking employers and financial user associations to discuss measures against the increasingly frequent digital scams that especially target the most vulnerable.

The brigade will be led by the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Digital Transformation, but will also have representation from telecommunications operators, financial entities and the Bank of Spain. The idea is that the brigade functions as an “early warning and forceful response” mechanism in the face of fraud actions and protects citizens from cyber fraud.

“The presence of financial entities and telecommunications operators is essential within this brigade to understand what is happening, to jointly assume the needs we have to respond to this enormous challenge,” Corp added.

The minister is waiting for Congress to decide on Thursday whether to move forward with the law that regulates the financial client defense authority. A rule that, for the Economy, is key in supporting the reimbursements of defrauded amounts through its binding resolutions.

The brigade announced by the minister adds to other measures already adopted this year, such as the possibility that telephone operators can block numbers linked to fraud. Between February and August of this year, more than 50 million calls and two million SMS have been blocked, Corpus has reported.

Extension of mortgage relief for another year

Beyond the anti-fraud measures, the minister has announced that the mortgage relief measures that were launched in 2022 will be extended for another year due to the sharp rise in interest rates by the European Central Bank (ECB).

The so-called code of good practices, which facilitates deferrals in mortgage payments (although with a later fee surcharge) expired at the end of 2025, but will remain in force voluntarily for entities also in 2026.

Since its launch, it has benefited 7,747 families, but in 2025 only 733 mortgage holders had benefited from its umbrella. Although use was low in recent months, the ministry has chosen to agree with financial entities on an additional voluntary extension.